Welcome to 2550!

Happy New Year!

I can't believe it is 2550 already! "Wait, isn't it 2007?", you're thinking and right you are if you live in most of the world, but here in Thailand it is 2550. Actually, it's both. Here in Thailand they have two calendars, the Gregorian calendar (the one used in the US) and the Suriyakati (สุริยคติ) or Thai solar calendar. You will commonly see both calendars around (most people use both) and it is easy to convert between the two. The only difference between the western and the Thai calendar is the year they begin. The beginning of the Thai calendar starts the year of the Buddha's death (which was 2,550 years ago this year). This means that to convert from a western date to a Thai date you need to subtract 543 years from the Thai date. Many Thai holidays are still determined by the lunar calendar so the dates change every year according to the western calendar. Anyway, I thought I'd use the New Year as a chance to fill you in on that little tidbit of information.

And on to the actual holiday and celebrations! New Years is a much bigger holiday here than in the US. New Years is similar to Christmas in that this is when they give gifts and have big parties and such, so that has been fun. In addition to our school Christmas party we also had a school New Years party. The last day of school before the New Year was dedicated to parties and celebrations at school. Classes were cancelled but the students and teachers all came to school to celebrate and relax together. My students mostly spent the day listening to music, dancing, watching movies, eating tons of food and towards the end of the day they did a gift exchange. The most popular gift exchange is to have everyone bring in a present of a certain value (100-200 baht) and then assign each present a number and have students draw numbers from a hat. I did this type of exchange with the other teachers in the office and will do it again with the students and teachers from the music school where I am learning guitar and teaching English. Most people give gifts around New Years and the whole day different teachers from different departments found their way into our office to give gifts and we made our rounds as well. It was interesting to watch the gift giving process. The English Program went to present our gift to the director of the school and we walked down together and our director handed her the present and while both were holding the present the director gave us a new years wish or blessing or thank you (essentially she talked while we listened and it had to do with the new year and her wishing us well). Then we waied her (the Thai greeting/thank you/sign of respect...essentially placing you hands together as in prayer and bowing your head slightly...there is more to it and maybe that would make an interesting entry one of these days). Anyway, throughout the day we were greeted by people wishing us a happy New Year and it was quite fun. After school and after the students went home, the teachers had their party. We pulled out some table and a stage and had our Red and White New Years Party on the school grounds. Each department brought something to eat and drink and we had a grand old time eating and drinking (mostly whiskey and beer) out in front of the administrative building on campus. There was a DJ and music playing all night and occasionally at the behest of the crowd a teacher or two would be forced up on stage to sing karaoke. Throughout the evening the crowd would also break out into song and sing the traditional New Years songs. It's a bit similar to Auld Lang Syne in the US, but much more festive and usually sung without music and everyone sings and sings proudly. Nonetheless, the evening was eventful. But no evening or party in Thailand would be finished without door prizes! At the beginning of the night we drew numbers and those numbers corresponded with certain prizes. Piled up off to the side were rice cookers, blankets, toasters, blenders, a couple bikes and other assorted prizes and yours truly walked away with a brand new toaster. So, I now have a toaster and I really don't know what to do with it since I don't really eat toast at all and anyway toast isn't very Thai either, so if I come up with anything creative I'll be sure to let you know (and if you have any ideas send them my way). And with that the New Years celebrations at school came to an end.

Here are some pictures of the New Years celebrations at school (both the students and the teachers).
This album is powered by
BubbleShare
- Add to my blog
For the actual New Years (this all took place on Friday, December 29) I headed down to Bangkok with the intention of celebrating in the city and going all out, but my plans were forcibly changed. That'll be the subject of the next entry.

Until then,

Ryan

P.S. You like how I'm leaving cliff hanging entries now?!? Hey, I've got to amuse myself somehow.